: Re: How to refer to clothes without modern words ? (e.g: t-shirt) This is a constant struggling point of mine. Most of my settings take place in fictional worlds often inspired by various parts

@Caterina108

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If the fashion is important to your secondary world story, make up some terms for the outfits and describe then throughout the narrative as part of the worldbuilding, while using more generic ones, like sandals or robes, without explanation. The level of detail is up to you, and you do not have to drench the reader in a precise description of how the hem of someone's qwerty was trimmed, but if you say that it "billowed behind her like a maroon cloud, barely touching the floor" you will be building a more or less sufficient image.

I had once to describe what would be an equivalent to a kimono in my world (a martial artist agreed to give a hand combat lesson to another character) and ended up sending a servant into town to buy something resembling "a baker or miller pants and shirt, but wide enough not to restrict movements", etc., but the scene allowed to play with it on several different levels, so I had my fun.

One thing not to do: use modern or very culture-specific terms, like trenchcoat or sombrero :-)

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